Zack Taylor
}} }| colspan="3" style="padding-top:10px;" }| – } }|, }}} }} }} |} Zachary “Zack” Taylor is the first and original Black Mighty Morphin Power Ranger in the franchise. He is the second-in-command of the group. Zack is a boisterous dancing bruiser. He'll deliver a smooth line and do a smooth move before taking out his opponent. It's cocky, flashy and a little unnecessary but still pretty cool. The most iconic aspect of his character, incorporating dance moves into his fighting and even coming up with his own dance fighting style, "Hip Hop Kido". In earlier episodes, hip hop dance music even played in the background during his fight scenes. The most prominent is his solo battle with the Knight Monster. Zack does have the tendency to brashly go after monsters (Primator, Stag Beetle) even if it sends him over a cliff. Zack is by far the most fun loving and spontaneous of all the rangers. He cracks jokes, pulls pranks, does magic tricks and finds an excuse to dance at almost every turn, even in stilts. Zack is a relatively mild example but he is a pretty good, albeit slightly stereotypical, representation of young black culture and whatever was cool and hip in general during the 90's. And yes, he would occasionally utter words such as "jammin", "groove" and "phat". Zack is a kid in love with life. He is everybody’s friend and lights up a room when he enters it. He’s also a kid with a good heart and a seemingly boundless supply of energy. He is smooth talking, streetwise, very clever and has the ability to disarm his adversaries with a quick smile and a smooth line. He fancies himself to be a ladies’ man. At school, you will find Zack hanging around the music rooms, telling stories in the quad or helping a kid out with a teacher problem. Zack’s passion in life is music and dance. He loves all kinds of music from Handel to Hip Hop and can dance to any beat. He is also an accomplished gymnast – a skill which he combines with dancing and martial arts to form a karate style he calls Hip-Hop-Kido. Zack is quite intelligent and uses that intelligence to provide a balance to Jason’s gung-ho style. Though his courage is inarguable, he will often act as the voice of caution when a situation is unclear or overly dangerous. Intuition is the guide of Zack’s life – a fact that is often reflected in the rationale of the decision he makes. As a Power Ranger, Zack draws power from the Mastodon. His weapon is the Power Axe. Personality and Traits Zack Taylor is good to a fault. He is excessively polite, motivated, cheerful, civically minded and brave to a fault. He will fight to the bitter end to foil the plans of Rita Repulsa and her minions. Zack’s standout personality trait is his general enthusiasm and upbeat attitude. He is the group’s clown and perennial prankster. Zack loves to be the center of attention, and often dances in front of the others. He is also the group’s romantic member and spends much of the first two seasons pursuing women's hearts and he eventually wins. Zack is a charming guy who’s never had trouble with the one-liner, nor lacked confidence around women. Zack is the ladies' man, seen with his arm wrapped around girls on a regular basis at the Youth Center or trying his hardest to spit game to his crush. He is so cool and confident that came running to OUR BOY when he didn’t know what to do about his feelings. Zack is the best representation of a fun-loving, charismatic young African-American man in the 90s. He is funny; always up for a good joke. He is confident and powerful to the point he could take on Rita’s creatures solo dolo if/when he got separated from the squad. Zack is very skilled and lethal enough to be squad leader and was the right-hand man in battle and sparring partner when practicing karate. Zack is fair and liked to include everyone in on the fun or fight, with a great example being when he would slow down and tone down his lightning quick fighting moves on order to mimic the moves and simultaneously attack. Physical Appearance Human Form: Zack is a good-looking African-American teenager with deep brown eyes and dark black hair. His build is slim yet muscular, like the build one would find in a trained dancer or gymnast. Curiously, Zack is missing the middle finger on his left hand (how or why was never revealed or even mentioned in the show). Over the course of the show, Zack’s hair length and style followed the trends in African-American culture. Initially, it was cut into the “high-top” style (long and high on the top of the scalp while “faded” on the sides). By the end of the second season, it had grown long enough for Zack to plait his hair into many tight braids that hung down to his ears. Unlike the other Rangers, Zack’s wardrobe is rarely limited to the colours of his Ranger designation (which was black). Instead, Zack’s wardrobe follows the trends that can be found in African-American culture at the time of the show (much like his hair). While black is always a part of his ensemble, Zack can often be found wearing other bright vibrant colours, including yellows, reds and greens (Zack often wears tops emblazoned with the colours of the pan-African flag). Ranger Form: When his powers are active, Zack is clothed in his form-fitting Spandex body suit. Three white diamonds are featured prominently across the chest, upper shoulders and the middle of the back of the costume. His hands and forearms are covered by a pair of white gloves that have triangular diamonds at the upper end of the gloves. His feet are covered by a similar pair of white boots. Situated around the middle of his waist sits a pure white belt that holds Zack’s Power-Morpher in the place of a belt buckle. Outside of all of the white, the rest of the costume is a dark black. The Black Ranger uniform is topped off with a helmet; the top of which is fashioned in the shape of a Mastodon. The trunk and tusks of the Mastodon surround the visored eyes of the helmet and the mouth piece of the helmet is covered by a grey moulded material that is fashioned in the shape of a mouth. Abilities Zack is highly athletic, and is able to perform various gymnastic feats and dance with great grace and style. He is also a superb martial artist and has even created his own martial arts style; “Hip-Hop-Kido” (a fusion of Karate and various dance moves). Weapons As the Black Ranger, Zack wields the standard Ranger sidearm into battle; a Blade Blaster. The Blade Blaster is a small high-tech dagger like weapon that can be quickly converted into a high-powered laser gun. Additionally, Zack can summon a weapon called the Power Axe. This large and heavy weapon has a single large blade which Zack uses to deadly effect. When necessary, Zack can slide the base of the axe-head downwards towards the end of the weapon’s hilt, converting it into a cannon-like weapon that can fire wicked blasts of energy at his foes. When combined with the other Rangers’ “Power Weapons,” the Power Axe forms the main portion of the large crossbow like weapon; the Power Blaster. Zack utilizes a Wrist Communicator to keep in close contact with his fellow Rangers and Zordon in the command centre. The communicator appears to be watch-like device that Zack wears on his left wrist. In addition to its standard cell-phone like features, the Wrist Communicator can access the Rangers’ Command Center’s Teleportation system remotely. This allows Zack to teleport whosoever he needs to go at will. Finally, while clad in his Black Ranger Uniform Zack gains the ability to summon and pilot the Mastodon Dinozord. Limitations When not in use, Zack’s Black Ranger uniform presumably exists invisibly and immaterially about his body. In order to cause the suit to manifest itself in the material world, Zack must hold aloft his Power-Morpher (which contains his “Power Coin”) and utter the command “Mastodon.” Until he does so, Zack is a normal human teenager and is quite vulnerable to conventional injury. Quotes * “Mastodon!” * “The good guys are here!” * “Looks like it’s time to go to work.” * “Now, it’s time for my slamma-jamma, double-whamma, hip-hoppit, ’cause-ya-can’t-stop-it, big-disgrace, ’cause-it’s-in-your-face, long-shot!” * “You’ve messed with my friends, and now I’m gonna mess with you! Time for you to learn what Mastodon power is all about. Let’s see how you like my deep freeze! Nighty-night, web-face!” * “Speakin’ of happy endings, I left her sittin’ back at the theater! If I don’t get back before the curtain goes down, it’s gonna be curtains for me. I’m outta here. See ya.” Trivia * Zack's birthday is on May 3 and was born in Washington, D.C. * Zack's favorite foods are meat loaf, ice cream and junk food. * Zack's favorite music are hip hop, R&B, jazz, rock, and blues. * Zack's favorite subject is school is American History. * Zack is 5'6" and 174 pounds. Category:Power Rangers Category:Black Ranger